Sridevi : Kerala's outsider who was also an insider

Many years before Tamil and Telugu cinema celebrated her as a star-actor, before her hugely successful crossover to Bombay, Sridevi did films in Malayalam, both as child actor and an up-and-comer outsider, fitting into stories rooted to distinctly Malayali settings and sensibilities.

But her most enduring image for a particular generation of Malayalis would perhaps be her - aged six - playing Balasubramanian in the Malayalam-Tamil bilingual Kumarasambhavam (1969).

She would go on to win a state award for best child actor for her performance in Poompatta (1971).

Through the latter half of the 1970s, Sridevi appeared regularly in films directed by veteran director I V Sasi, including Abhinandanam, Aaseervadam, Aa Nimisham and Oonjaal.

She was paired opposite leading actors of the time, including Vincent, M G Soman and Kamal Haasan, who was also establishing himself as a star in Malayalam.

Kamal and Sridevi also appeared together in Satyavan Savitri (1977). Sasi also directed them in Tamil, in the 1980 blockbuster Guru.

Even after Sridevi moved away from Malayalam cinema, her pairing with Kamal in Tamil cinema remained extremely popular in Kerala - Moondram Pirai (1982) and Vaazhve maayam (1982) (dubbed as Premabhishekam) continue to find retro nods in the state's popular culture.

When she did her last film in Malayalam, Bharathan's Devaragam (1996), opposite Aravind Swamy, it was a return after two decades.

In the 26 films she did in Malayalam, Sridevi never shared screen-space with two of Malayalam cinema's biggest icons, Mohanlal and Mammootty, both of whom expressed grief at her demise on Sunday.

Her last major public appearance in Kerala was in 2013, when the state government honoured her as part of the official Onam celebrations, in Thiruvananthapuram.